Who pays for the owner’s policy in Homestead?
The buyer customarily pays for the owner’s policy in Homestead.
That is the custom in Miami-Dade County, and so in Homestead. Custom is not law. The purchase contract decides it, and in a negotiated deal either side can end up paying. Read the contract before assuming which line it falls on.
How the custom runs in the other counties is on who pays for title insurance in Florida.
What title insurance costs on a Homestead purchase
The same as anywhere in Florida — the premium is promulgated.
- Owner’s policy, $500,000
- $2,575
- Original rate, R. 69O-186.003(1)(a)
- At the reissue rate
- $1,530
- Where the prior title was insured and conditions are met
- Lender’s policy alongside
- $125
- Our charge; the rule’s minimum is $25
The Office of Insurance Regulation sets it by rule under Fla. Stat. § 627.782, so the premium on a Homestead policy is the figure it would be anywhere in the state. The Florida title insurance rates are printed in full on the calculator, with the rule beside them, and the closing cost calculator prices a specific Homestead address off the Miami-Dade County property appraiser’s record.
More detail on what title insurance costs
The reissue rate applies where the owner’s or the seller’s own title was insured and the rule’s conditions are met. The rule sets $25 as the least a lender’s policy issued at the same time can be. That $25 is a minimum, not a price: Bayit Title charges $125 to issue the policy alongside the owner’s, and that is the figure the estimate prints. Where the loan is larger than the owner’s amount, the coverage above it adds the difference between the original rate at the loan amount and at the owner’s amount.
Read from Fla. Admin. Code R. 69O-186.003 on September 14, 2026. The rule was last amended January 27, 2002. Tell us if a figure here does not match what you are quoted and we will check it against the rule again.
Documentary stamp tax on a Homestead sale
Taxed by the state, at the rate that applies in Miami-Dade County.
Miami-Dade County is the one Florida county with a different deed rate, and it levies a surtax the other 66 do not. The stamps are charged on each part of $100, so they round up. Which side pays each is decided by the purchase contract.
A cash purchase carries neither mortgage tax. The Florida doc stamp tax calculator works it out for a specific price and loan.
More detail on documentary stamp tax
Deed stamps. 60¢ per $100 of consideration, or part of $100. Lower than the rest of Florida because the 10-cent increase in ch. 92-317 was never applied here.
County discretionary surtax. 45¢ per $100 of consideration, or part of $100. Not charged where the interest conveyed involves only a single-family residence.
Mortgage stamps. 35¢ per $100 of the amount secured, or part of $100. The $2,450 cap in § 201.08(1)(a) is on the tax on a note or other written obligation to pay money. There is no cap on the tax on a mortgage recorded against Florida property.
Intangible tax. 2 mills on each dollar secured — $2 per $1,000. One time, on the obligation the mortgage secures.
Each figure was read from the statute that sets it on September 14, 2026 and is linked to its section. Which county ch. 83-220 describes comes from the Department of Revenue’s documentary stamp tax guidance. Rates change by act of the Legislature — if one of these no longer matches what you are being charged, tell us and we will correct it.
Where a Homestead deed is recorded
Homestead is in Miami-Dade County, so the deed records with the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, not with the city.
- First page
- $10.00
- Then $8.50 a page
- A 3-page deed
- $27
- Same at every office
- A 25-page mortgage
- $214
- Same at every office
Charged by the page, at a rate the statute sets for every office in Florida — Fla. Stat. § 28.24(13).
We cannot guarantee documents will be recorded on the same day that we receive them. Documents submitted via eRecording may take approximately 1-3 business days (excluding weekends/holidays) to review and process before they are made available for public viewing.
More detail on recording
Recording, first page: $10.00. $5.00 service charge, plus $1.00 to the Public Records Modernization Trust Fund, plus $4.00. Fla. Stat. § 28.24(13)(a), (d)1., (e)
Recording, each page after the first: $8.50. $4.00 service charge, plus 50¢ to the trust fund, plus $4.00. Fla. Stat. § 28.24(13)(b), (d)2., (e)
Indexing, per name over four: $1.00. Reached by a deed with several grantors, or by a mortgage naming a trust. Fla. Stat. § 28.24(13)(c)
The office’s own fee schedule covers the other things it does — certified copies, searches, its own e-recording arrangements — and a third-party e-recording vendor may add a fee of its own, which is not the office’s charge and not this.
The turnaround above is the office’s own published statement, not a commitment it makes to us or a time we can promise you. Offices change these pages without notice. On a file where the recording date matters, ask us and we will check what the office is actually doing that week.
Read from the statute on September 14, 2026. If a charge here no longer matches what you are being charged, tell us and we will correct it.
The municipal lien search in Homestead
A title search reads Miami-Dade County’s records. What the City of Homestead knows takes a search of its own.
None of these is in the official records. They are found by a separate municipal lien search directed to the city itself, and we order one on every file. What it turns up goes to you in writing, with what clearing it would take, as soon as it comes back.
Where the City of Homestead publishes it: lien search and permit records.
- Lien search
- The City’s estoppel and lien search costs $75 per folio in 3 to 5 working days, or $125 per folio for rush service in 1 to 2 working days. It covers downtown assessments, code compliance, utilities and liens placed by the City. Source: Lien search
- Open permits
- Open permit searches are a separate request, made by email to the Building Division. Source: Open permits
- Utility liens
- A City lien for unpaid service charges comes ahead of all other liens on the property except liens for state, county and municipal taxes. Source: Utility liens
- Lien reductions
- A code fine can be reduced only once an inspection finds every violation corrected. The maximum cut falls from 95% when compliance came within 30 days of the deadline to 25% when it came 12 months or more after it. Source: Lien reductions
- Settling a code fine
- A later owner can ask to reduce a code fine too, and the City Manager can settle one without a hearing, within the code’s reduction limits. Only one reduction is allowed per violation. Source: Settling a code fine
- Utility lien appeals
- An owner has 30 days after the City mails a notice of a utility lien to appeal it to the City Manager. After that the right to contest the lien is gone. Source: Utility lien appeals
- Lender registration
- A lender has to register a property in default with the City within 10 days of inspecting it, at $200 a year, or $300 for commercial property. The duty lasts until the property sells to an owner who isn’t a lender and is occupied. Source: Lender registration
- Squatter costs
- If the City has to secure a property under its squatting rules, the owner has 30 days from the invoice to pay. After that the cost becomes a lien ranking with taxes, at the maximum legal interest. Source: Squatter costs
Each line restates what the page linked beside it said when it was read, on October 7, 2026: the City’s own page, a portal it links to, or its code. Offices change these pages without notice; on a file where one of them matters, ask us and we will check it again.
What an open permit does to a closing: What happens if there's an open permit on the property before closing?
How a signing happens in Homestead
At our office, wherever the signer is in Homestead, or online.
A Homestead signer can come to our office in Coral Springs, or we send a notary to them — a kitchen table, an office, wherever they are. Remote online notarization is the third way, for a signer who is not in Homestead on the day. The closer who prepared the file is reachable during the signing whichever way it happens.
In our office
3301 N University Drive, Suite 100, Coral Springs.
Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Wherever the signer is
We send a notary to the signer, including outside office hours.
About mobile notary signings →Remote online
Signed online with a Florida-commissioned online notary.
How remote online notarization works →
Each kind of file has a page of its own: home purchases and sales, refinances and commercial title. Everything we handle is on title, escrow and closing services in Florida.
Title problems we have written about in Miami-Dade County
What tends to hold up a Miami-Dade closing, and what it takes to clear.